The present invention relates to a composite material and a method of producing the same, and a composite metal material and a method of producing the same.
A composite material using a carbon material such as carbon fiber, carbon black, graphite, or carbon nanofiber has attracted attention (see JP-A-5-78110, for example). Such a composite material is expected to exhibit improved electric conductivity, heat transfer properties, and mechanical strength due to inclusion of the carbon material such as carbon nanofiber.
However, the carbon material generally exhibits low wettability (affinity) with a matrix material of the composite material and exhibits low dispersibility in the matrix material. In particular, since the carbon nanofibers have strong aggregating properties, it is very difficult to uniformly disperse the carbon nanofibers in a matrix of the composite material. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain a carbon nanofiber composite material having desired properties. Moreover, expensive carbon nanofibers cannot be efficiently utilized.